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Issue 232 In This Issue ▼

07 Dec 2018

AGILE, SWIFT, GRACEFUL,

LETHAL...

by
Africa Geographic Editorial
Friday, 07 December 2018
“A
cheetah in full flight is one of Africa’s most breathtaking sights
– that blindingly rapid and yet sublimely smooth acceleration
and the ability to swerve at full speed simply take one’s breath
away. And, with a hunting success rate in excess of 50%,
cheetahs are amongst the most successful of Africa’s large
carnivores when it comes to hunting efficiency, second only to painted wolves.

And yet, the evolutionary sacrifices that cheetahs have made in their quest for speed
and agility have placed them at a disadvantage when it comes to defending themselves
and their food against other predators. Lions, leopards and hyenas frequently rob
cheetahs of their hard-earned meals, and even kill adult and baby cheetahs, in the
ongoing brutal battles amongst predators over resources. Game reserves and national
parks with high populations of large predators tend to harbour small cheetah
populations, and most cheetahs are often found in the vast lands beyond protected
areas. Trying to avoid conflict with stronger predators, cheetahs move to unprotected
areas. However, there they come into conflict with pastoralists, who see cheetahs as
potential livestock killers, which leads to retaliatory killing of cheetahs.

Cheetahs have another reason to fear humans. Their relatively timid nature and lack
of brute strength and sharp hooked claws makes cheetahs popular pets for humans.
Even though no wild animal species should be tamed and made into household pets
or items in personal zoo collections, there is a substantial trade in wild-caught and
captive-bred cheetahs. And the recent upsurge in South Africa of tourism ‘predator
encounters’ and cub petting facilities has increased the demand for cheetahs, which
have a longer usage shelf-life in this regard than do lions.”

~ Simon Espley, CEO of Africa Geographic

A cheetah cub peers
curiously from around a The following notes were based on information from IUCN Red List, supplemented by Dr.
knobthorn tree © Cal Butler
Elena Chelysheva from the Mara-Meru Cheetah Project.

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Cheetahs are the fastest land mammals, with documented speeds up to 115 km/hour
in captivity and 93 km/hour in the wild, but they cannot maintain such speeds for
more than a few hundred metres. By comparison, sprinter Usain Bolt hits a top speed
of 45 km/hour over a maximum of 100 metres.

They are found in a wide range of habitats, from dry forest and thick scrub to
savannah grassland and arid deserts.

Cheetahs take a wide variety of prey, predominantly small or medium antelope

species such as Thomson’s gazelle and impala, but also larger species such as
wildebeest and kudu. They also target ground-dwelling birds such as francolins and
bustards and small mammals such as hares. Unlike many predators, cheetahs rarely
scavenge.

Cheetahs adapt to various environmental conditions and display different behaviours

depending on the area and country. For example, in South Africa in areas with high
large carnivore densities, cheetahs can lose up to around 10% of their kills to lions
and spotted hyenas. In these areas, they are primarily active during the day and
during full moon periods when there is good visibility, and tend to abandon their
kills once they have eaten their fill – both habits are thought to reduce conflict with
lions and hyenas.

In contrast, in areas where there are fewer other predators, they have been recorded
as being primarily nocturnal, although this may be to avoid the increased human
 activity in those areas. In Kenya’s Maasai Mara, cheetahs change their diurnal activity
and become nocturnal, depending on current needs and circumstances, and some of
them become successful hunters in total darkness!

Read about how cheetahs modify prey handling behaviour to outsmart lions and
hyenas here

Clockwise from left: A hyena is chased away by a mother cheetah after it tried to attack
her cubs in Ndutu, Tanzania © Roie Galitz; 2) Cheetah brothers scan the horizon in the
Serengeti, Tanzania © Barbara Fleming; 3) One of the males from the Fast Five coalition
© Nimit Virdi

SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND TERRITORIES

Female cheetahs tend to be solitary (when not with dependent young), whereas males
tend to form coalitions of two or four (often littermates) – a social organisation that is
unique amongst cats. Sometimes brothers accept unrelated males and such unions last
from a few weeks to several years. In the Maasai Mara, a male coalition named the
Fast Five has become famous because it was formed from unrelated males, who travel,
hunt and rest together, but split for mating so that each member gets the chance to
breed.

Although females display preference to certain partners, adaptive mechanism

leads them to mate with as many males as possible in order to increase genetic
diversity.

Four of the Fast Five

attempting to mate
with a female cheetah
in Kenya’s Maasai
Mara – read more
about this encounter
here © Elena
Chelysheva
In areas where prey is not migratory (such as Namibian farms), cheetahs establish
large home ranges (up to 3,000 sq. km!) with extensively utilised core areas, with
male and female ranges overlapping to an extent. It is thought that the large home
ranges are to avoid clashing with other large predators such as lions, leopards and
hyenas.

In areas where prey is migratory (such as the Serengeti/Maasai Mara ecosystem), some
cheetahs follow the herds, while others establish territories (60 – 150 sq. km) or
become nomadic, covering vast territories within Mara-Serengeti ecosystem.

BREEDING AND CUB MORTALITY

Wild female cheetahs live to about 14 years, and males to 10 years. Females have been
recorded as starting to breed at two-years-old, and to continue beyond 12-years-old.
The cubs are born after a three-month gestation period, and kept hidden away in a
lair for the first two months of their lives. During this time, the mother will be out
hunting and therefore absent from the lair during daylight hours.

Cub mortality can be high – up to 95% reported in the Serengeti, 76 – 74% in the
Mara and 64% in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Lions, spotted hyenas and
leopards are key predators of cheetah cubs, in addition to smaller predators such as
honey badgers, jackals and secretary birds. In the Mara, depending on the year, only
7 to 15% of cubs reach the age of independence.

Surviving cubs remain with their mother for 12 – 22 months, after which they will
roam with their littermates for a few weeks or up to six months. At this time, females
split from their siblings, while surviving males will stay together for life or join up
with unrelated males to form a coalition.
A young cheetah cub guards
its kill © Manuel Graf
TAXONOMY

The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) has 5 subspecies, as follows:

• Acinonyx jubatus hecki (Northwest African cheetah)

• Acinonyx jubatus fearsoni (East African cheetah)

• Acinonyx jubatus jubatus (Southern African cheetah)

• Acinonyx jubatus soemmeringii (Northeast African cheetah)

• Acinonyx jubatus venaticus (North Africa to central India – the Asiatic cheetah)

The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) has been described as a species with low levels of
genetic variation as a consequence of a demographic bottleneck 10,000 – 12,000 years
ago, which led to small genetic differences between the subspecies. However,
examination of mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites in cheetah samples from most
of the historic range of the species undertaken in 2011, revealed the distinctiveness of
Northeast African cheetahs (A. j. soemmeringii) from Southern African (A. j. jubatus)
and Asiatic cheetahs (A.j.venaticus).

The English name ‘cheetah’ is derived from Sanskrit ‘citra’, meaning spotted or
speckled.

The scientific name Acinonyx jubatus derives from Latin and Greek with the genus
name referring to its semi-retractable claws and the species name – to the mantle
which covers the cub’s body for a few months of age.

Cheetah cubs play in

the Maasai
Mara, Kenya © Paolo
Torchio
 CONSERVATION STATUS AND POPULATIONS

In the beginning of the 20th Century, over 100,000 cheetahs roamed Africa and Asia,
but by the end of that century, the wild cheetah population had reduced to 15,000.
Currently, the total population is estimated at 7,100 adult and adolescent animals of
known cheetah populations, with the majority – 4,297 living in Southern Africa,
2,290 in Eastern Africa and 457 in Western, Central, and Northern Africa. In Africa,
cheetahs are resident only on 13% of their historical range, and in Asia on just 2% of a
historical range – entirely within Iran, where less than 50 animals recorded.

The cheetah is classified as ‘Vulnerable’ in terms of the IUCN Red List, while the two
subspecies A. j. venaticus (Asiatic cheetah) and A. j. heckii (Northwest African cheetah)
are listed as critically endangered.
 MAJOR THREATS

Because cheetahs require such large ranges, they are especially vulnerable to habitat
loss and fragmentation.

Those living outside protected areas are often threatened by conflict with livestock
and game farmers. Although they do prefer wild prey over livestock, they have been
known to kill domestic livestock species, and so face retaliatory persecution by
farmers. Game farmers may also target cheetahs due to a perceived threat to their
farmed game species.

Because cheetahs rarely scavenge, they are less susceptible to poisoning than are other
carnivores such as hyenas, leopards and lions. Cheetah do though get caught in snares
set for bushmeat, even though they may not be the primary target.
Clockwise from top left: A family of cheetahs in the Serengeti, Tanzania © Danielle
Waldman; 2) A cheetah mother observes human movement in the Mara Triangle, Kenya ©
Olli Teirilä; 3) Cheetahs dine on a kill while vultures look on © Alex Dyason; 4) A young
cheetah cub © Tim Desilets

Cheetahs are able to survive in low prey-density areas because they are such efficient
hunters, but they are nevertheless vulnerable to the reduction in prey species due to
hunting, high livestock densities and grazing pressure, and habitat conversion. Low
prey densities, in turn, cause cheetahs to target domestic livestock.

High speed roads also represent a threat to cheetahs, especially where tarred roads
cross or adjoin major wildlife areas.

Unregulated tourism has the capacity to threaten cheetah populations, where large
numbers of tourist vehicles or insensitive tourist behaviour can lead to interference
with cheetahs hunting, scaring cheetah away from kills, and separation of mothers
from cubs.

Cheetah are hunted in some areas for their skins, and also for cultural uses.
Additionally, there is a substantial illegal trade in wild-caught cheetah cubs and
adults to the Gulf states.

Read about how cheetah cub survival is impacted by high-tourism areas here
Left: A male cheetah takes down a Grant’s gazelle in Ndutu, Tanzania © Alison Mees;
Right: A cheetah’s paw © Annemarie du Plessis

USE AND TRADE

CITES permits a legal quota for “live

specimens and trophy hunting” of cheetahs
in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, with
most resultant trade primarily being of
hunting trophies from Namibia and captive-
bred animals from South Africa. There is
strong suspicion that some of the animals
traded from South Africa as captive-bred are
in fact wild-caught. Observers have reported
illegal international movement of live-
captured wild cheetahs between Botswana,
Namibia and South Africa.

The illegal trade in cheetah skins for

traditional use and live wild-caught cheetah
cubs is an ongoing issue, with the primary
market for the live cubs being the Gulf
States. The cubs are sourced in Ethiopia and
Kenya, via Somali-controlled trading
operations. There is a high mortality rate (estimated 70%) amongst wild-caught cubs,
and captive conditions in the Gulf States are often not satisfactory, with inappropriate
diet leading to illness and early death.

Historically a key cause of the demise of the Asiatic cheetah populations was from
illegal capture and trade and the hunting for their skins, and currently illegal trade in
live cheetahs remains a problem issue.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Of all species, surely the cheetah most represents Africa’s vast open spaces, where no
fences stifle the seasonal movement of species between ecosystems and the free flow of
dispersing individuals seeking breeding opportunities and escaping persecution. For
cheetahs do not fare do well in fenced reserves, where they have to compete with
larger, more powerful predators. If we can succeed in keeping cheetahs roaming wild
and free, then we will by implication also achieve great things for African wildlife
conservation.
A magical shower in
Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
© George Turner

TRAVEL WITH AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC

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FLY WITH AIRLINK

The Africa Geographic team flies with Airlink, who offer multi-destination flight
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popular lodges in the greater Kruger National Park and beyond.
 ALSO IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE

Gallery: Photographer of the Year 2019

View the latest photographs chosen for our

Weekly Selection gallery as part of our
Photographer of the Year 2019 competition.

VISIT THE GALLERY HERE

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Our Photographer of the Year 2019 competition, brought to you by Airlink, with
a stunning prize provided by Klaserie Drift Safari Camps, i s n o w o p e n f o r
submissions and already within the first week we have received some fantastic photos.

The competition runs from December through to the end of April 2019, and there is
a great prize up for grabs! The overall winner, first runner-up, and second runner-up
(along with their partners), will experience the ultimate private safari at Amani Safari
Camp and the soon-to-be-launched Misava Safari Camp, located in the heart of the
Klaserie Private Nature Reserve, part of the Greater Kruger National Park in South
Africa.

So get your entries in now and join us in celebrating Africa! Click here for more
details about how to enter.
"Leopard and friend" – Sabi Sands Game Reserve, South Africa © Arnoud Quanjer
A silverback gorilla rests in Mgahinga National Park, Uganda © Tracy Brightman
"Jaws of life" – Timabavati Private Nature Reserve, South Africa © Michael Raddall
A bevy of laughing doves in Zimanga Private Game Reserve, South Africa © Bruce Staples
A young leopard cub in Sabi Sands Game Reserve, South Africa © Michael Raddall
A grey crowned crane in Lake Nakuru, Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya © Thorsten Hanewald
A bottlenose dolphin enjoys some winter swell off the Eastern Cape, South Africa © Tanya Nadauld
A puffadder spotted in the Johannesburg area, South Africa © Thilo Beck
A lazy leopard in Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya © Thorsten Hanewald
A scorpion glows under UV light at Mata Mata rest camp, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa © Arnoud
Quanjer
Reflection of a flamingo on Lake Bogoria, Kenya © Thorsten Hanewald
"Monkey business" in Sabi Sands Game Reserve, South Africa © Michael Raddall
"Feeding time" – Sabi Sands Game Reserve, South Africa © Michael Raddall
An African skimmer at sunset in Chobe River, Botswana © Rraawe Emma
"Feline reflections" – Sabi Sands Game Reserve, South Africa © Michael Raddall
"Leopard sunset" in Sabi Sands Game Reserve, South Africa © Arnoud Quanjer
"The wanderer" in Sabi Sands Game Reserve, South Africa © Michael Raddall